GM has made notable gains in the 2025 North American Automotive OEM-Supplier Working Relations Index (WRI) Study, conducted by Plante Moran. The automaker’s WRI score rose by 11 points to 310, crossing the 300-point threshold for the first time in the study’s 25-year history. The latest ranking places GM third among the six major automakers evaluated, trailing behind Toyota and Honda. GM ranked third last year as well.
The WRI Study measures supplier perceptions of working relationships between suppliers and automakers, focusing on factors such as communication, accessibility, responsiveness, buyer knowledge, and costs. In the latest study, GM ranked in with the best score in the Buyer Accessibility and Buyer Knowledge categories.
“Overall, OEMs that effectively address consistency, predictability, and alignment of strategic goals are generally stronger, more profitable, and become customers of choice for suppliers. And because of their mutual dependency, these attributes are good for the suppliers too,” said Dave Andrea, Principal in Plante Moran’s Strategy and Automotive & Mobility Consulting Practice.
The latest progress marks a significant for GM, which has struggled with supplier relationships in the past. Two decades ago, the automaker held the lowest WRI score ever recorded at just 114.
Strong supplier relations are critical for all automakers as the broader industry navigates a challenging landscape marked by rapidly shifting government policies, lower-than-expected EV demand, rising competition from Chinese competitors, and other factors.
Meanwhile, the 2025 WRI Study marks declining scores for Nissan, Ford, and Stellantis, with Stellantis ranking last by a significant margin. While Toyota, Honda, and GM took the top three spots with a score of 386, 347, and 310, respectively, Nissan, Ford, and Stellantis occupy the bottom three slots at 249, 191, and 141, respectively.
“With all the challenges and conflicts facing automakers and their suppliers this past year, it’s not surprising that some automakers dropped even further in their WRI scores because the WRI reflects the tangible and intangible costs to serve any individual customer,” Andrea said. “It’s all about balancing and aligning the various functional demands of the OEM – purchasing, manufacturing, engineering, design, finance – so there are fewer conflicting demands on the supplier and the OEM’s team members.”
Comment
Stellantis dead last. Why am I not surprised? I cannot understand why we even have Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep around anymore. What a waste of a company. Really sad considering I grew up with two Chrysler minivans.
As for Ford, Mulally was the last good CEO they had. Hackett was an idiot who ran the company like it sold office furniture and was only focused on killing off sedans and Farley barely does anything useful for the company. The only good thing Farley did was bring back the Bronco.